Roger Bivand
R and geographical information systems, especially GRASS
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The paper starts by sketching the key modes of spatial data analysis
(point pattern, continuous surface, areal/lattice), and how they fit
into legacy GIS data models. Based on development work with the GRASS
release 5 team (GRASS 5 is GPL), status is reported for sites (point)
data and for raster data, as well as using R as an intermediate
analytical environment for interpolating from sites data to discretised
continuous surfaces. Indications are given for broader interfacing using
the GDAL library for GIS raster data and remote sensing data for other
GIS than GRASS. So far, there are few vector data results, although
again, interesting open source possibilities seem to be emerging.


Roger Bivand, Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics,
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Breiviksveien
40, N-5045 Bergen, Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 93 93;
e-mail: Roger.Bivand@nhh.no